


A Version of the World

by J (j_writes)



Category: due South
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-31
Updated: 2011-07-31
Packaged: 2017-10-22 01:21:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/232146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/j_writes/pseuds/J
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Benton Fraser came to Chicago in search of the bookstore of his father, and for reasons that don't need exploring at this juncture, he stayed, taking up his father's place behind the counter and distributing fun and educational reading materials to the children and adults of the city.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Version of the World

**Author's Note:**

> written for Lamentables.

Benton Fraser came to Chicago in search of the bookstore of his father, and for reasons that don't need exploring at this juncture, he stayed, taking up his father's place behind the counter and distributing fun and educational reading materials to the children and adults of the city.

There was a little cot in the storeroom, and although his father had left him an apartment, he chose to sell it and use the money to buy more books, stuffing every corner of the shelves with them and living among boxes of others. The regulars worried for a while that maybe Bob's son wouldn't have what it took to keep the store running, but soon enough it became clear that if anyone was going to keep the tiny shop safe from the competition of big chain bookstores, it was Benton Fraser.

The children loved him, clinging to his legs and begging him to tell them stories of growing up in the north. Diefenbaker would curl up next to them, like he was listening, and then when Fraser was done, he'd nose a book about Canada over into the children's laps. People very rarely ever left the store empty-handed.

Their mothers loved him too, and the businesswomen who strolled by the store on their way to work. Also some of the businessmen. He developed a steady stream of young and relatively attractive customers claiming they needed something to read on the train. He always seemed to have exactly what they were looking for (although every so often they'd drop some more overt hints about what they were _actually_ looking for, and he'd flush a deep red under his flannel collar).

Next door was a tiny café, Raimundo's, and it took hardly any time at all for Ray Vecchio, the owner, to be spending most of his time in Fraser's shop instead of at work. He'd leave his sister Frannie waiting on customers, with Huey and Louis in the back making the pastries and the coffee, and would inevitably return to find the place in chaos.

Clearly, he decided, the best solution was to knock down the wall between their two stores, because who didn't love a combination of coffee and books?

Raimundo & Fraser's turned out to be a roaring success, and Fraser and Ray would sit in the shop at night, after they'd closed and locked the doors, relaxing in Ray's plush booths and drinking coffee, Fraser trying valiantly to get Ray to read some of his favorite books.

Then came the night when Ray pulled Fraser back into the kitchen, away from the windows, and kissed him, pressing him up against the wall next to the espresso machine and thoroughly stealing every gasp of his breath.

The next morning, Ray went undercover from the mob.

It hadn't been any secret that Raimundo's had some shady business deals going on behind the scenes, and Ray Vecchio wasn’t exactly the kind of guy who could keep his mouth shut about anything, so somehow he wound up in trouble and decided that the best way to escape it would be to vanish, leaving someone else living his life in his place.

It probably would have been a good idea for the guy Ray paid for the job to at least vaguely resemble him, or even to be Italian, but no one had ever said that Ray Vecchio was the best of planners. Anyhow, with Frannie vouching for his identity and decently forged papers, people began to forget that Ray Vecchio hadn't always been a skinny blond guy with a suspicious accent.

People did, but Fraser didn't.

It took him a long time to warm up to this new Ray, and he found himself sticking to his own little corner of the shop, behind the counter selling books, longing for the days when there had been a wall between them. The new Ray would bring him coffee every morning, leaving it on the counter and chattering for a few minutes without even seeming to notice that Fraser never said much back, before the first customers started coming in and distracting him.

At the end of the night they cleaned up together, and Fraser would listen to his stories, and sometimes tell one of his own, but they never sat down and ate the leftover pastries together, or watched the late night traffic on the street outside. There were some lines that Fraser just would not cross with this new Ray, things that were not his to share in.

Ray started making new traditions for them, though, new things that he would pull Fraser into with his boundless enthusiasm and rather undeniable charm. He started decorating for all the holidays, turning the shop into a spooky wonderland for Halloween, then tearing it all down in November and starting over with Christmas. When it started snowing, he'd show up early to shovel the sidewalk, and he'd come in, tracking snow on his boots that Dief would chase around the floor. It seemed only the decent thing to do to make him hot chocolate or cider to come in to, so Fraser started doing that, and they'd sit at the bar on Ray's side of the store, Ray with his mittened fingers wrapped around a hot mug, and the scents of baking dough and coffee beans floating in from the kitchen where Huey and the new guy, Dewey, were just getting to work.

Somehow, Ray took on the challenge of reading every book in Fraser's store. It started as a joke, then turned into a dare, then turned into something he just _did_. Fraser allowed him to take them home with him (although sometimes they'd come back with coffee stains along the bindings and he'd have to offer them at half price), but many nights Fraser would cook dinner for himself and Dief in Ray's kitchen while Ray was still curled up in one of the easy chairs on the bookstore half of the shop, lost in the world of some book. It made him feel bad, cooking for himself alone while Ray was sitting right there, so he started making enough for both of them, then settling down into the chair across from Ray, picking out a book of his own.

When this Ray kissed him, it was more tentative than his last kiss, less desperate. One night, Ray finished one of his books, then unfolded from his chair and crossed over to Fraser's, settling along the arm of it and peering over his shoulder, his fingers rubbing along the nape of Fraser's neck as he read along with him. When he leaned down to press their lips together, he still tasted faintly of coffee and sugar, and Fraser leaned back against him, helpless to do anything but kiss him back.

He expected the next morning to find Ray gone.

He wasn't. And he wasn't gone the next day, or the next day, or the day after that either.

Eventually, it became clear that this Ray wasn't going anywhere. And maybe it wasn't riding off into the sunset or anything, but it was the two of them, Fraser and Ray and their little shop, and in the end, it was almost as good.


End file.
